Life in the wrong lane: Owen v

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Owen v

It's probably a good idea to read the progression of posts on Owen before this one if you haven't already:

Owen
Owen ii
Owen iii
Owen iv

Well, the results are in.

Jennifer and I went in to Sick Kids Hospital many weeks ago to find out where the triplication in Owen's eleventh chromosome came from, and yesterday we got the results. The possibilities were that it was new in Owen, or that it came from either Jennifer or myself.

It's me. I have a triplication on my eleventh chromosome just like Owen does. I'm ecstatic.

Usually one does not jump for joy when finding out they have something odd like this, but I am. Why? Owen is not alone. It doesn't change who I am. I am still me, just as Owen is still him. When we thought he was the only one in the world with this triplication, we didn't know whether or not it came with a reduced life expectancy. Now we know he could easily live to 40 just as I have, and longer. Whew.

Of course, there are no real conclusions we can draw from just genetics, especially when it comes to an entire lifetime of learning and responding to environment, and being so influenced by the same family that is also possibly affected, but it opens a whole nature vs. nurture debate in our household, about what could have been caused by the genetic anomaly and what was just passed down through other means.

Much more on that later, I promise.

For now, to tell the truth, I'm just happy my little guy is no longer the only one out of over 6 billion people. It makes the world seem a little less lonely.